Listeners are able to classify sounds into discrete categories. Th is phenomenon is called categorical perception. A variable that substantially inﬂuences perception is the linguistic background of the listener. For example, listeners can have diﬃ culties recognizing sounds from a language they are not familiar with. However, a factor that has not been studied in detail, is the inﬂuence of the regional background of listeners with the same mother tongue on the perception of speech sounds. This article addresses this question. Phonological descriptions of vowel systems often distinguish between ‘tense’ and ‘ lax’ vowels. Both categories may diﬀer in pitch, intensity, vowel quality and duration. This article focuses on the role of vowel duration in the categorisation of unstressed vowels. The study is based on a corpus of spontaneously spoken Standard Dutch, produced by 80 Flemish and 80 Dutch teachers of Dutch. In a previous study Kloots et al. (2006) found that Flemish listeners categorized unstressed /a/’s and /o/’s quite consistently as ‘ lax’, whereas Dutch listeners clearly differentiated between ‘tense’ and ‘ lax’ vowels. The present follow-up study shows that the ‘tense’-‘ lax’ distinction of the Dutch listeners goes hand in hand with a signiﬁcant diﬀerence in vowel duration: ‘tense’ vowels have a longer duration than their ‘ lax’ counterparts. The mean duration of the vowels, categorized as ‘tense’ and ‘ lax’ by the Flemish listeners was not signiﬁ cantly diﬀ erent. These ﬁndings conﬁrm our assumption that (only) for the Dutch listeners there is a real phoneme boundary between ‘tense’ and ‘ lax’ unstressed vowels.

@incollection{1269516,
abstract = {Listeners are able to classify sounds into discrete categories. Th is phenomenon is called categorical perception. A variable that substantially in\unmatched{fb02}uences perception is the linguistic background of the listener. For example, listeners can have di\unmatched{fb03} culties recognizing sounds from a language they are not familiar with. However, a factor that has not been studied in detail, is the in\unmatched{fb02}uence of the regional background of listeners with the same mother tongue on the perception of speech sounds. This article addresses this question. Phonological descriptions of vowel systems often distinguish between {\textquoteleft}tense{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft} lax{\textquoteright} vowels. Both categories may di\unmatched{fb00}er in pitch, intensity, vowel quality and duration. This article focuses on the role of vowel duration in the categorisation of unstressed vowels. The study is based on a corpus of spontaneously spoken Standard Dutch, produced by 80 Flemish and 80 Dutch teachers of Dutch. In a previous study Kloots et al. (2006) found that Flemish listeners categorized unstressed /a/{\textquoteright}s and /o/{\textquoteright}s quite consistently as {\textquoteleft} lax{\textquoteright}, whereas Dutch listeners clearly differentiated between {\textquoteleft}tense{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft} lax{\textquoteright} vowels. The present follow-up study shows that the {\textquoteleft}tense{\textquoteright}-{\textquoteleft} lax{\textquoteright} distinction of the Dutch listeners goes hand in hand with a signi\unmatched{fb01}cant di\unmatched{fb00}erence in vowel duration: {\textquoteleft}tense{\textquoteright} vowels have a longer duration than their {\textquoteleft} lax{\textquoteright} counterparts. The mean duration of the vowels, categorized as {\textquoteleft}tense{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft} lax{\textquoteright} by the Flemish listeners was not signi\unmatched{fb01} cantly di\unmatched{fb00} erent. These \unmatched{fb01}ndings con\unmatched{fb01}rm our assumption that (only) for the Dutch listeners there is a real phoneme boundary between {\textquoteleft}tense{\textquoteright} and {\textquoteleft} lax{\textquoteright} unstressed vowels.},
author = {Kloots, Hanne and Verhoeven, Jo and Couss{\'e}, Evie and Gilils, Steven},
booktitle = {Voor Magda : artikelen voor Magda Devos bij haar afscheid van de Universiteit Gent},
editor = {De Caluwe, Johan and Van Keymeulen, Jacques},
isbn = {9789038216577},
language = {dut},
pages = {347--361},
publisher = {Academia Press},
title = {De rol van vocaalduur bij de categorisatie van onbeklemtoonde Nederlandse klinkers},
year = {2010},
}